This year’s tour had been long in the planning.
Mum will be turning 93 yrs. of age in 2017, so it was a no-brainer that I would have to make the trip to W. Africa to visit and spend time with her.
My last visit was in 2015.
With the demands of finances that a trip of this magnitude demands, I would have to set my riding aside and re-direct whatever funds I could towards traveling overseas.
With dreams of still so many places to see I began some long term planning for 2016.
I knew I would be deprived of a motorcycle tour in 2017 so I wanted to make the most of what I could possibly and comfortably afford and accomplish in 2016.
My youngest daughter and her fiancée had chosen the end of August this year (2016) to get married, so I would therefore be making a trip to Corpus Christi for that – be it by air or road.
Road?
Hmm, that was an idea. If I rode to Texas, I could make a tour of my return trip.
Yeah, why not?
I’d have the whole Gulf Coast within striking distance and the thrill of another opportunity to ride through the Appalachians.
I’d still have some vacation time left in the year so I figured since I’d be missing out on a tour next year, why not try to do/afford 2 of them this year?
It was a grand idea.
I felt I owed it to myself anyway.
So I now had the challenge of coming up with an interesting and affordable trip.
So cutting a long story short, I decided to make it a destination ride.
Pick somewhere in particular to visit and then enjoy all points in between.
Back in February of this particular year at a work-related training and certification seminar in Garden City, Kansas, I struck up a new friendship with Mike.
Mike lives in Maine and before we parted at the end of that week, we promised each other to have a lobster dinner in Maine, one day if and when I made it to and through that state.
This would be a great opportunity to make that happen.
Winter was just about coming to a close and as usual, I was anxious to get out and ride.
The warm weather could not arrive soon enough.
Looking into my notes of dreams/bucket list, I visualized a trip to/through New England with my main destination being the city of Lubec, Maine.
So what’s the attraction to this place, you might wonder?
Well, Lubec’s claim to fame is that of being the easternmost city in the lower 48 contiguous states of the United States and is also home to the West Quoddy Lighthouse situated on the Pasmaquoddy head of land. This head of land is a peninsula that juts out eastward from the mainland, making it the first place in the country to receive the suns’ rays of light each day.
In 1808 the lighthouse was built to assist with marine navigation, to guide ships through the very narrow water body known as the Quoddy Narrows separating it from Campobello Island, Canada, allowing access to the Pasmaquoddy Bay. It is still in operation today and sports red and white stripes - the only one in the whole country to be painted in this scheme of colors, making it stand out and be seen during heavy fog, for which this part of the world is known for.
Other pluses for me on this trip were to reconnect with my buddy Pete (we had met in Corpus Christi where we both lived at the time several years back) who had retired and now lives in Connecticut and also to visit my daughter and granddaughter who currently live in New Jersey.
So I began to plan in earnest, opting to incorporate the Memorial Day weekend into my trip to increase the number of days at my disposal, even if only by one extra day!
So the trip began to take shape.
A visit to New England, then a ride to Texas for the wedding and make a tour of the return trip.
Done deal!